Lenovo Takes On 7 Rivals: Tablet Faceoff

Lenovo's 3 new tablets square off against Apple iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab, HP TouchPad, and other top contenders.

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Lenovo's ThinkPad Tablet is an Android 3.1 device intended for business customers. It has a 10.1-inch display, 1280 x 800 screen resolution (full HD), and is supported with Corning Gorilla Glass. The display is also IPS, meaning that you can view it at very wide angles. It is powered by the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and includes a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. It has a bevy of ports, including a full-size SD card reader, mini HDMI out, native USB 2.0, and a SIM card port. It also recognizes pen input, and Lenovo sells a digitized pen as an added option. The ThinkPad comes loaded with approximately 40 popular apps, includes Notes Mobile for handwriting recognition, and many security features, including SD card encryption, device data encryption, device monitoring and remote wipe, and several others. The ThinkPad Tablet weighs 1.65 pounds and is 13.3 mm thick--a bit heftier than the iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 101. Pricing starts at $479 ($509 with the digitizer pen), and will be available for order on August 2--that initial price is slightly less (by $20) than competitive tablets for a 16 GB Wi-Fi only offering.

InformationWeek has not tested any of the Lenovo offerings, but will do so in the near future.

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